TULA, February 2. /TASS/. Russia sold billions of dollars’ worth of weapons abroad last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"I must say that last year, strangely enough, we also delivered a decent amount of our military equipment to the world markets - worth billions of dollars," he said.
"As for the defense enterprises in general and those in Tula in particular, of course we all understand now that there are orders to capacity. <...> The Pantsir systems are in great demand. I must say that they are very popular on the international arms markets," Putin noted.
However, according to him, despite the demand, these complexes are also needed in Russia. "In order to cover civilian objects, infrastructure, because we see how this [Ukrainian] government behaves, hitting civilian objects, they need to be covered, and the border needs to be protected," Putin emphasized.